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Venus (Planet)

Venus The Venusian symbol, a circle with a small equal-armed cross beneath it
Venus in approximately true colour, a nearly uniform pale cream, although the image has been processed to bring out details.[1] The planet's disc is about three-quarters illuminated. Almost no variation or detail can be seen in the clouds.
A real-colour image of Venus taken by Mariner 10 processed from two filters. The surface is obscured by thick sulfuric acid clouds.
Designations
Pronunciation Listeni/ˈvnəs/
Adjectives or (rarely) Cytherean, Venerean
Orbital characteristics
Epoch J2000
Aphelion
  • 0.728213 AU
  • 108,939,000 km
Perihelion
  • 0.718440 AU
  • 107,477,000 km
  • 0.723332 AU
  • 108,208,000 km
Eccentricity 0.006772
  • 224.701 d
  • 0.615198 yr
  • 1.92 Venus solar day
583.92 days
Average orbital speed
35.02 km/s
50.115°
Inclination
76.680°
54.884°
Satellites None
Physical characteristics
Mean radius
  • 6,051.8±1.0 km
  • 0.9499 Earths
Flattening 0
  • 4.6023×108 km2
  • 0.902 Earths
Volume
  • 9.2843×1011 km3
  • 0.866 Earths
Mass
  • 4.8675×1024 kg
  • 0.815 Earths
Mean density
5.243 g/cm3
  • 8.87 m/s2
  • 0.904 g
10.36 km/s (6.44 mi/s)
Sidereal rotation period
−243.025 d (retrograde)
Equatorial rotation velocity
6.52 km/h (1.81 m/s)
2.64° (for retrograde rotation)
177.36° (to orbit)
North pole right ascension
  • 18h 11m 2s
  • 272.76°
North pole declination
67.16°
Albedo
Surface temp. min mean max
Kelvin 737 K
Celsius 462 °C
  • brightest −4.9 (crescent)
  • −3.8 (full)
9.7″ to 66.0″
Atmosphere
Surface pressure
92 bar (9.2 MPa)
Composition by volume

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. It has the longest rotation period (243 days) of any planet in the Solar System and rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets. It has no natural satellite. It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It is the second-brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows at night and, though rare, occasionally be visible in broad daylight. Because Venus orbits within Earth's orbit it is an inferior planet and never appears to venture far from the Sun; its maximum angular distance from the Sun (elongation) is 47.8°.

Venus is a terrestrial planet and is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because of their similar size, mass, proximity to the Sun, and bulk composition. It is radically different from Earth in other respects. It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets, consisting of more than 96% carbon dioxide. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of Earth, or roughly the pressure found 900 m (3,000 ft) underwater on Earth. Venus is by far the hottest planet in the Solar System, with a mean surface temperature of 735 K (462 °C; 863 °F), even though Mercury is closer to the Sun. Venus is shrouded by an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light. It may have had water oceans in the past, but these would have vaporized as the temperature rose due to a runaway greenhouse effect. The water has probably photodissociated, and the free hydrogen has been swept into interplanetary space by the solar wind because of the lack of a planetary magnetic field. Venus's surface is a dry desertscape interspersed with slab-like rocks and is periodically resurfaced by volcanism.


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